Sigourney Weaver on why she’s excited about Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5

A few days ago, Sigourney Weaver was reported as saying that Neill Blomkamp’s proposed Alien sequel was still very much alive. Well, she’s done a bit more teasing at an Alien Day screening of Aliens at New York City Town Hall.

Arrow In The Head reports that Weaver addressed the increased levels of Michael Biehn’s Hicks in the sequel, as well as the question of why she’s excited to return to that universe after all this time.

On the question of Corporal Dwayne Hicks, Weaver said, “I think the part of Hicks is just a beautifully written part. Just this very cool- great heart and strength and intelligence. In Neill Blomkamp’s sequel, you get to see a lot more of them together. [Meaning Ripley and Hicks] Is that something you guys would like to see? [crowd erupts in applause] It will happen, we have to wait until after Prometheus 2, I think… I certainly wish all the best for Prometheus 2, or whatever it’s being called.”

Ah yes, Alien: Covenant, which just revealed its first teasing teaser image yesterday. While we’re definitely excited to see what Scott’s follow-up to Prometheus looks like, it’s the prospect of more Ellen Ripley that makes Blomkamp’s Alien movie a really thrilling prospect. After four movies, Weaver would surely be forgiven for no longer being that psyched about squaring up to xenomorphs, but she revealed that Blomkamp’s take won her over.

“It’s very satisfying. I felt that we left the character after 4, it was all going to end up on Earth and I didn’t want to end up on Earth. It’s so mundane to me compared to the beauty of space. We kind of just left the whole story hanging and it always felt a little incomplete to me. So when Neill Blomkamp started to talk to me about a sequel to [Aliens], I thought, ‘Gosh, that would be so great to know that Ripley has a resting place eventually.’ Not that the other two didn’t happen. The filmmaker has to be inspired by what he’s inspired by, and what he grew up with, and I think wore the tapes out of, were Alien 1 and 2 in South Africa. So we’ll see what happens.”